President Yoweri Museveni is to be rewarded for his contribution to the thriving of the East African Community (EAC). Museveni will be awarded during the Uganda-DRC Trade Symposium which will take place on November 30, 2022.
Museveni will be awarded alongside DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Uganda’s Minister of East African Community Affairs Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, Senior Presidential Advisor for Special Operations Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba and Member of the East African Legislative Assembly Fred Mukasa Mbidde will be recognized for their enormous contribution for the growth and development of East African Integration.
Organized by the Karibu East Africa Presidential Awards and the International University of East Africa, Trade Symposium is aimed at helping the Ugandan business community to access the right information about the business opportunities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) market. The panelist will discuss security, transportation, taxation, pricing of commodities and financing of exports and other topics.
Panelists will be invited from the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces, Uganda Revenue Authority, the Banking industry, the DRC government, the Congolese community trading in Uganda and the cross-border transport sector to address Ugandan business people that want to do business in the DRC.
“The objectives of the symposium are; to raise awareness about the importance of the DRC market; to identify Ugandan business persons with potential for the DRC market and link them to the right stakeholders; to document challenges faced by both formal and informal traders dealing with the DRC market and forward them to relevant authorities for redress and to create a communication platform for all potential business persons interested in the DRC market for better networking,” the organizers said in a statement.
They said Ugandan small business entities want to tap into the DRC market but lack the right information and are discouraged by the numerous news reports of insecurity in DRC. There is little accurate information on the DRC to help business people to make appropriate decisions even though the Congolese market appears to be the next game changer for trade within the East African Community.
Awards
President Yoweri Museveni
In 2023, President Museveni will mark 30 years since he put pen to paper to revive the EAC. Since then he has taken it upon himself to champion a deep and wide expansion of the regional bloc that has expanded from the original three partner states (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania) to seven countries with additional Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and DRC. Somalia is also joining soon. EAC now connects the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean and soon, the Gulf of Eden, to make a population of close to 300 million people.
President Museveni is further credited for championing the annexation of EAC, Southern African Development Community (SADC), and Common Markets of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to create Africa’s largest trading bloc beginning as the African Continental Free Trade Area with a combined population of over 527 million people and a combined gross domestic product of $624 billion.
Because of this integration process, Uganda and African countries have benefited from strategic security, infrastructure development and economic prosperity. Consequently, President Museveni will be honored with the Award of “Supreme Guide of African Unity.”
President Felix Tshisekedi
President Felix Tshisekedi will be honored with the “Hero of East Africa” award for his decision to get DRCadmitted into EAC in a record four years. DRC is the most lucrative and virgin market that will enrich the region.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta will be honored with the “Top East Africa Peace Ambassador” award for his commitment to peace in the region. Before he left power, Kenyatta had successfully repaired relations with almost all the East African partner states including South Sudan (in 2019), Uganda (in 2021), Tanzania (in 2021) and Somalia (in 2021).
He also participated in peace talks between Uganda and Rwanda, DRC and Rwanda, and Rwanda and Burundi, and in July 2022, he was appointed a peace facilitator between the Kinshasa government and the dozens of rebel groups in eastern DRC. Kenyatta has been at the forefront of facilitating peace talks between President Salva Kiir and the warring factions. Kenyatta was one of the mediators of the African Union-brokered peace talks between the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels. Kenyatta and Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian president, have successfully secured a peace deal between the Tigrayans and the Ethiopian government. Therefore, because of that reputation and commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflicts in East Africa, Kenyatta is recognized as the Top East Africa Peace Ambassador.
Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga
Rt Hon Kadaga will be honored with the “Most Vibrant East African Leader” award for; enforcing compulsory learning of Kiswahili, first, by policymakers, and then later, in schools; she is applauded for her firmness in retaliation against Kenya’s blockade on Uganda’s exports that has resulted into Kenya authorities allowing Ugandan goods like milk and poultry products onto their market; she also fought for Alex Obatre Lumumba, a Ugandan who had been cheated from the position of Clerk to the East African Legislative Assembly to get the job; she is currently fighting for Uganda to host the East African Central Bank and, in October 2021, she made sure that South Sudan scrapped visa requirements for Ugandans traveling there.
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Senior Presidential Advisor for Special Operations, will be honored with the “Most Outstanding East African” award for his efforts to restore Uganda-Rwanda relations after three years of a border dispute. His personal relationship with Uhuru Kenyatta also eased the tension in bilateral trade relations between Uganda and Kenya.
Fred Mukasa Mbidde
Fred Mukasa Mbidde will be honored with the “Best East African Legislator” award for his exemplary non-partisan and outstanding legislative work. Hon Mbidde is the first legislator to write a book on East African integration process for readers in the region to understand East African regional integration.
Mbidde intervened when Burundi challenged the election of Rwanda’s Rt Hon Martin Ngoga as Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly. Out of Mbidde’s skillful legal intervention, Burundi lost the case and Ngoga retained his position. Previously, Uganda’s representatives to East African Legislative Assembly turned against one of their own, Margret Zziwa, who was an EALA Speaker.
It is Mbidde, from the opposition, who stood by her all throughout her ordeal. Mbidde attended a mediation with South Sudan for harmonization of their first EALA elections and petitioned the court for the cancellation of the first wrongly nominated members by the South Sudan president. To date, South Sudan conducts one of the freest and fair elections in the region.
He also forced Uganda through reference No 6 of 2011 to comply with Article 5 of the EAC Treaty on elections for members of the East African Legislative Assembly as opposed to appointments.
Mbidde informally lobbied former president Joseph Kabila to allow DRC to join EAC. He engaged in litigation aimed at fostering access to justice by forcing partner states to deposit declarations under Art 349(6) to the protocol for the African Court on Human and Peoples rights.
Mbidde chaired the EALA committee of communications, trade and investment; chaired the subcommittee of legal, rules and privileges that emerged with the 1.5 constitution requirement for women in the Kenyan parliament in 2012 and also worked as EALA commissioner.
In addition, at least other 40 private sector organizations will be honored for their contribution to the growth and development of East African integration.
